Overweight children help needed

[stormmclean]

I weighed and measured my 7 and 10 year olds today and they are both overweight - the 7 year old by about 3kg and the 10 year old by about 5kg. Both 97th percentile for BMI.

Friends and family all tell me not to worry, they're just a sturdy/stocky build and the worst thing I can do is mention their weight or give them body issues but I do really want to tackle their weight.

We eat fairly healthily, I think it would be easier if we could just cut out biscuits, juice or puddings but they don't really have those things.
They do both have big appetites so I know that volume of food is the issue but I'm struggling with how to cut down without them feeling like I'm putting them on a diet.

Has anyone successfully managed to get their kids to a healthy weight?

Crisps and peanut butter have gone away in a cupboard.

Dinner tonight is carrot soup followed by pasta in a hidden veg/lentil sauce.

I'd be massively upping the protein and trying to get your ten year old to move more.

This can be disguised i.e let's walk to the shop, rather than signing him up for a fitness class.

Onv cut the crisps

And the McDonald's twice a month is a bad idea

They'd love to have MacDonalds twice a month but fortunately we don't live close enough to one!

The difference between having too much food and 5e right amount of food for a child is small. Cutting out 100-200 calories a day might be all it takes.

You could encourage them into switching from grapes to apple wedges with a small amount of peanut butter as they love it. You'd use less than on a piece of toast and they'd still have what they enjoy, just less often.
I've seen pancake recipes that use cottage cheese which might be healthier?
Now it's getting colder, a small mug of home made lentil & vegetable soup when they get home is a good idea. There are plenty of carbs in vegetables so they won't be missing out if you cut out pasta/rice etc. I find carbs often drive the appetite, especially in the evening.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/childrens-weight/advice-for-parents-overweight-children/

Some of this sounds familiar. I’d definitely speak to the grandparents and agree a sensible portion (3 sausages is fine as an indulgence). Do they feel the need to spoil the kids/think you are too strict.

I agree on bulking protein and veg and weighing out carbs. But otherwise, be careful on being restrictive as if they feel they are being restricted, then there is a tendency to overeat. So keep an after school snack, keep making sure the basics are healthy and increase activity, protein and veg.

18g raw is 40g cooked. That link is for school meals. It's not from a qualified dietician in children's health.
just looked at the link that's shocking they clearly meant to say cooked not raw!
And yes 18 pieces is exactly the correct amount.

Why would you think they wrote the wrong thing?

Here we have a serving being 125g cooked:

https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/food-essentials/how-much-do-we-need-each-day/serve-sizes

With 4-5 servings per day for a 4-11 year old:

https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/food-essentials/how-much-do-we-need-each-day/recommended-number-serves-children-adolescents-and-toddlers

Here they're suggesting 125ml cooked:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/info/nutrition/if-nfs-food-guide-serving-sizes-5-to-11-years.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjCh9zegYyJAxXmfKQEHequAuAQFnoECBsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1OvpZbABfAWP_omoe2B6ZM

None of that seems to be suggesting 18g of uncooked pasta for a 10 year old.

I did them about 50g of dry macaroni each tonight and when I weighed their cooked bowl of pasta with sauce on they were each about 110g-120g. It wasn't a huge amount.
Half of that would be a toddler serving rather than a 10 year old.

I read the recommended amount was 40g. And that’s fine what else did they have with the macaroni and sauce @stormmclean?

Carrot soup, pasta & sauce with some grated cheese and a piece of fruit.

Why the soup? Do they have a starter at most meals?

When I make pasta, I give myself 50 dry. My 10 year old would have slightly less, and I’d be lucky to get half in my 7 year old. But any pasta would have chunky veg and a protein (other than cheese) with it to bulk it out and make more balanced.

They would probably have a pudding after too though- nothing big, maybe a yogurt or small pack of haribo.

I’ve said before - weigh everything and count the calories they’ve had in a day and that will give you your answer as to what your next steps are.

How much moving around do they do in a normal day? For instance do they get the car everywhere or do they walk the dog/walk to the bus stop etc?

what were you like as a child? Some kids do go through a chunky phase for no obvious reason and then slim out as they get older.

50g seems like a small portion of pasta for an adult - my teen and husband would definitely have more like 75-100g each.
50g is only about 180 calories.

The carrot soup was just because I had it in the freezer and it meant they'd have more veg, and be less likely to want second helpings of pasta.

You'll find that lots of tiny changes add up. Get rid of the once a week beige freezer dinner and the excessive dinners/snacks at grandparents, get rid of the daily crisps, replace some of the daily carbs with extra vegetables, get them walking everywhere. Also, if they're overweight then I wouldn't be too worried about being a bit firmer about them eating the dinner you've made and not having bread and butter instead. They clearly get enough calories over the course of the day. It won't hurt them to start adjusting to the idea that if they're actually hungry, they need to eat the food that's on offer and not ask for a less healthy alternative. If they just want to have a tiny bit and then leave the rest, that's fine too.

75g dry is normal for an adult, that's what it says on the packet is a serving.
I do about 35/40g for my 10 year old granddaughter and sauce would have meat or fish in it plus various veg.
If yours had 50g of pasta( which I think is quite a lot for a 7 year old)would they ask for second helpings? If so, they'd likely be eating an adult portion of pasta. I'm wondering if the issue is in your portion sizes.

Do you think 😂

They are. Other than the cereals, which are quite low in sugar as cereals go, there’s not much sugar there at all.

Be really careful asking for this kind of advice on mn, op. There’s a lot of competitive undereating and normalising of very restricted eating.

I spent a lot of my young adult years in an Eating Disorders unit where the vast majority had tales of parents putting them on a diet, commenting on their body shape, and restricting their food. Professionals working with ED’s are always very unimpressed with the government approach to healthy eating in schools etc, demonising of some foods as bad etc. I personally wouldn’t take the one bag of crisps a day out of their diet.

Your dc sound as though they have a healthy diet. Just keep an eye on their portion sizes, as you already are, and keep them active.

Give them more veg each meal. Lots more. Less carbs.

I tend to agree with this. Since you say your teen has always been a healthy weight, has anything changed in the way you do food/exercise/life since they were this age?

The children are overweight, OP is right to address this now

Your history shouldnt cloud your judgement about whether overweight/obesity should be tackled

An example is that people are using the 'serving size' recommendation on packages to say, this is what it should be.

Serving sizes are invented by manufacturers to get us to overeat so they sell more product!!

Stupid advice. That will cause life long eating disorders. At that age,food and exercise is under parental control so parents need to moderate without the children knowing.